Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Malayalam film actor Siddique in a rape case. The case was registered against the actor based on the complaint of an actress.
Justice C.S. Dias said, “The application is dismissed.” The detailed information of the order stating the reason for dismissal of the actor’s plea is not available yet. Siddiqui has been booked under sections 376 (rape) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The actor claimed in his petition that the complainant actress has been running a “long campaign of harassment and false allegations since 2019” against him.
In his anticipatory bail plea, he claimed that the actress has made baseless and false claims against him that he had sexually harassed her and made ‘verbal sexual advances’ to her at a theatre for five consecutive years since 2016.
In his petition, he said, “Now she is making a completely contradictory allegation of a more serious offence like rape at a different place in the same year.” Siddique had resigned from the post of general secretary of the Association of Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) after the allegations were leveled against him.
FIRs have been filed against several prominent personalities of the Malayalam film industry following allegations of sexual harassment against various directors and actors in the wake of revelations in the Justice K Hema Committee report.
The Kerala government had formed the committee to investigate the assault on an actress in 2017. The Hema Committee report has revealed cases of harassment and exploitation of women in the Malayalam cinema industry.
After allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation surfaced against several actors and directors, the state government on August 25 announced the formation of a seven-member Special Investigation Team to probe these cases.